alexander



(No Model.) 7

J. W. ALEXANDER.

PENCIL SHARPENER.

No. 324,798. Patented Aug. 25, 1885.

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JOHN W. ALEXANDER, OF NE\V YORK, N. Y.

PENClL-SHARPENER.

ESPECL'FICATIQN forming part of Letters Patent No. 324:,798, dated. August 25, 1885.

(No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be itknown that I, JOHN W. ALEXANDER, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Pencil-Sharpener, adcscription of which is fully and clearly presented in the following specification and accompanying drawings.

My invention consists in the original definite structure of the knife or cutter and the novel method of operating it, as here shown, and also in its peculiar adjustment and arrangement in combination, whereby it may readily be removed for repairs or a new knife substituted; and thus the object of my invention is to provide a tool or implement for practical use, simple and inexpensive in construction, and capable of lasting and efficient service.

Figure 1 is a View in longitudinal section along center line; Fig. 2, a view in cross-section; Fig. 3, a view of side exterior elevation, and Fig. 4 of end exterior elevation; while Fig. 5 is a plan or top view, and Fig. 6 a perspective view of knife and handle.

The case or body A of the tool has the general contour seen in Fig. 3, and is made of metal, composition, or other suitable material. Its periphery at the mouth or entrance end is somewhat increased by a re-enforcement ring, to strengthen and at the same time give a proper finish to that end, while the narrow strip or tongue of metal standing out from the body at the neck 01' lower end serves a like purpose at that point, Fig. 3. The body A is provided with a socket, the sides of which are parallel from its mouth to point of contact with the cutter, Fig. 1, whence they gradu ally taper down until they converge to a point, so that the entire cavity shall exactly conform to a pencil when inserted and sharpened down by operation of the cutter to a perfect form.

The knife or cutter C, Fig. 6, is made from a strip of fine steel. \Vhile one end of the strip, narrowed down to appropriate width, is fashioned into the form of a ring, 0, for the finger of the operator, the other end furnishes the cutting part or edge of the knife, which is ground in such a manner as to form an obtuse angle with one and acute angle with the other of the two parallel sides of the knifestrip.

Thus the cutter, it will be observed, strikes the pencil at the same angle of inclination as the common knife when held and directly operatedby the hand. The tool is made with an opening or slit of the widthof the cutter, extending lengthwise the body, from. its reenforcing ring to the bottom and from its exterior surface interiorly to the cavity within, Fig. 5. The walls or sides of the slit (in one casting with the body) are built up or project so as to form the supports or lips c c of the slots E E, Figs. 1 and 2, in which the cutter O is made to move in easy contact upward and downward by manipulation of the finger-ring c. The line of direction the cutter is thus made to take along its slots or guides E E is in an inclined plane, making such an angle with the axial line ofthe pencil that the knife in its downward passage isin constant contact with the pencil from the time it first touches and commences to cut it, Fig. 1, until it reaches the end or pencil-point. The bottom or lower end of the pencilcase A is furnished with a screw, 1), by means of which the thumbring B, fitted with a collar and having a corresponding nut, is securely attached, Fig. 1. By unscrewing and removal of the collar or thumb-ring B the knife is introduced into its guides E E, and thus placed in position for use, and, as is evident, may be as readily slipped out at any time and repaired or new cutter inserted.

In operating this novel and useful. little instrument the thumb is placed in the ring B and the forefinger of the same hand in the ring a; the pencil with the other hand is passed into its socket and gradually turned around within it. As soon as the pencil end is estopped by the converging walls of its inclosure, the knife is brought down into contact by pressure of the finger on the ring 0, and the exposed part of the pencil immediately cut away. The pencil end, thus reduced in diameter, passes farther onward into the cone shaped cavity and presents a fresh surface to the cutter, which again approaches and cuts away the part exposed, permitting the tapering pencil end to advance still farther, and thus by repetition of this facile and natural movement until the pencil has reached the bottom of its socket, when it will be found to have been symmetrically cut anl sharpened to a finished point.

Although various mechanical devices have been attempted for reducing the pencil end to a point equally as well finished as when done by hand, yet by no one of such devices has the desired object been hitherto perfectly attainable. Thus, for instance, as shown by Letters Patent No. 228,923, June 10, 1880, where the cuttingedge of an immovableknife is in a line always at right angles to the direction of the pencil, the knife can never strike the pencil obliquely and have the sawlike action common to my device and to the hand operated knife, as hereinbefore explained, nor cut from the pencil end a thickness greater or less than that allowed by its own stationary adjustment and the fixed direction given the pencil; whereas in my novel construction the changing position of the knife along its inclined plane and the gradual forward movement of the pencil end permit the latter to be pared down in greater or less degree, as circumstances may require.

What I claim as my invention is In a pencil-sharpening tool, the removable knife 0, having the definite set cutter-edge shown, and furnished with finger-ring or handle c, in combination with the body A, having projecting lips e 6, provided with slots E E, the screw 1), and thumbring B, made with collar and nut, all substantially as herein set forth and described.

Executed at the city of New York this 6th day of May, A. D. 1885.

JNO. W. ALEXANDER. 

